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After a grueling but exciting Not In This Lifetime Tour launch in North America with Guns N’ Roses, Axl Rose is now switching back to singing lead for AC/DC, as he did earlier this spring.

One of the coolest parts about their first show on this leg of the Rock Or Bust tour, is that Greensboro, North Carolina was treated to “Live Wire” during the set.

Plus, they didn’t forget the classics!

I’ve got give Axl major props! He’s been on fire this year, singing just as well as he did in 1987. Everyone assumed delays would plague both tours, but we have yet to hear about a single one. In fact, when I attended the Guns N’ Roses show in Pittsburgh, they were onstage early, at around 8:45pm!

Guns N’ Roses, and Axl, have a bright future ahead. The possibilities are endless for them! AC/DC however, might be slowing their train. Angus Young explains, “At this point, I don’t know. We were committed to finishing the [Rock Or Bust] tour. Who knows what I’ll feel after? When you sign on and say, ‘I’m gonna do this and that,’ it’s always good to say at the end of it, ‘I’ve done all I said I would do.'” Bassist Cliff Williams has already announced his retirement, Phil Rudd is swimming in legal issues, and Malcolm Young is now retired as well. Brian Johnson is currently treating his hearing loss, but who knows if he’s up for another round of touring.

It’s been a really long time since Metallica was in Minneapolis last, so the sell-out crowd at the brand new US Bank Stadium was more than ready to rock. I expected awesome crowd reception, and we delivered.

What I didn’t expect (but should’ve), was that my ears would still be ringing the next day!

Metallica blew the lid off of that stadium, on an unusually chilly August Saturday night, and there was no better act to be the first representative of heavy metal to tear it down.

They launched into “Creeping Death” which let the audience know they were in for a ride! Seconds later – “For Whom The Bells Tolls” which oozed every bit of menacing aroma you’d imagine.

James Hetfield’s greatest song intro of the night was certainly before “Fuel”. He said something like, “We hope you’re having a good time, and I just wanna say – GIMME FUEL, GIMME FIRE, GIMME THAT WHICH I DESIRE!!” Yeah… the build up shook the new stadium to its core! No one expected the launch of such a powerful train of sound so soon!

It was everything you’d expect from Metallica. As a bonus, they pulled out the hits! Check out the set list…

1. Creeping Death

2. For Whom The Bell Tolls

3. Fuel

4. King Nothing

5. The Memory Remains

6. The Unforgiven

7. Leper Messiah (followed by a Kirk guitar solo)

8. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)

9. Sad But True (followed by a Rob bass solo)

10. Wherever I May Roam

11. One

12. Master Of Puppets

13. Battery (followed by another Kirk solo)

14. Fade To Black

15. Seek & Destroy

ENCORE

Harwired

Whiskey In The Jar

Nothing Else Matters

Enter Sandman
Needless to say, they covered every song you’d want them too. Rob even stepped out in a Vikings jersey for a bit! They truly tailored this show for the fans.
Special shout out to Volbeat and Avenged Sevenfold who did a great job warming up the crowd!

We know Jessica Pimentel from the Netflix hit Orange Is The New Black, right?

Yeah, that’s what I thought. She’s the amazing Maria Ruiz! Here’s another cool fact about her that no one knew since 2012…. she’s dating Tomas Haake of Meshuggah! They’re so in sync that it’s scary.

This story get better too! She has some metal cred to her own right. She fronts her own band, Alekhine’s Gun. They call themselves an extreme metal/hardcore band. I’m just saying, look at this intensity… I wouldn’t wanna mess with her.

Keep a look out for more of Jessica and Thomas. Meshuggah’s eighth album, The Violent Sleep of Reason, is out Oct. 7, and can be pre-ordered here. Season 4 of #OITNB is available to watch on Netflix right now!

“Brendon is the guy to speak officially about the future of Dethklok per se, but one thing that I do know is I was down in LA doing a few days with Brendon on a new project that happens to be called Galakticon 2.

All I know is this Galakticon 2 album sure sounds a whole lot like Dethklok and sure has the approach of Dethklok.. .but it’s called Galakticon 2. That’s the name of the band because we can’t use Dethklok any more.
This new record we recorded is fucking amazing, it’s killer, and I’m stoked. It sure is a killer record we did, chock full of double bass, killer riffs, and all sorts of cool stuff, and I can’t wait to hear it when it’s done.”

However, we now have Slash to thank for helping to bring awareness to his cause.

Eddie is doing an Evil Knievel style launch accross the Grand Canyon! He needs donations to make this happen, and fellow Knievel fan Slash decided to cover “Rocket Man” for him. Check out the link above to watch!

“Dave, David and Kiko, I’m thankful for your warm welcome and thrilled at the opportunity to perform and create badass music with you guys. Chris Adler, thank you for introducing me to Megadeth – and for your encouragement and support.”

If you’re a Soilwork fan asking “what’s going to happen to Soilwork now?” you’re not alone. We don’t have a clue where they’re going from here, but Björn Striddoesn’t seem too concerned.

Björn Strid

“In regards to the statement Megadeth released yesterday, confirming that Dirk will join them as their full time drummer, I just want to take the time to wish Dirk good luck on this new venture and thank him for 12 great years together. Together we have created a beast of a band and have pushed the limits musically further than we ever could have imagined.”
In the recent years Soilwork have found new ways of expressing ourselves and as much as of a cliché it is, I strongly believe that this is very much of a new era for us and that we still have so much left to say, whether it being with or without Dirk. This band has grown to be quite a metal collective and an institution that paves the way creatively and we hope that you, the fans, can feel the presence and the heart in our music still to this day.
Believe me, it’s there. I can assure that you will forever get 100% Soilwork, as long as we release albums. We aim to surprise ourselves and the listeners by constantly developing our sound and songwriting, something I believe we have succeeded in doing and yet remained true to our roots. That is something to be proud of and we are. We appreciate all our loyal fans and are excited that so many of you share our musical vision.
Meanwhile, I’m sure many of you have seen us at a festival in Europe this summer with our friend, Bastian Thusgaard filling in on drums and I’m sure we can all agree on what a monster he is. Thank you Bastian, you are absolutely killing it. Check out the remaining festival dates and come see us. We’ll be there. Thank you.”

In the meantime, check out Soilwork‘s newest project coming next month.

Tuesday night in Pittsburgh, a visibly excited Axl Rose called out “Hello boys and girls!” just after Guns N’ Roses launched into “It’s So Easy” to kick off another amazing night for the Not In This Lifetime tour. The crowd went nuts!!

For a group of guys that haven’t played together in twenty years, they didn’t miss a beat.

photo: Jack Fordyce – Tribune Review

Wolfmother opened for Guns N’ Roses with a solid set. They mixed older and newer tunes. The big hit of the night was “Woman”.

After Wolfmother took the stage, the audience was treated to a series of Guns N’ Roses hits. Not a single one went over negatively. They were tight as ever! They even refreshed my memory of Chinese Democracy by playing a few tunes from that album.

It was awesome to see them to honor their punk roots with some Johnny Thunders and Iggy Pop! Duff McKagan and Slash both had time to shine with separate solo opportunities, as seen above.

When Guns blasted into “November Rain” fans witnessed a melding of that and the piano ending for “Layla” that blew their minds! Not to mention a nice segue from “Civil War” to a “Voodoo Child” solo by Slash.

My eyes began to water when the opening notes of “Sweet Child O’ Mine” echoed through Heinz Field, and saw Slash, Duff and Axl play near each other like brothers.

Not to mention, hearing “Paradise City” amongst the Pittsburgh skyline was enough to bring on more tears from any Pittsburgher.

All in all, this tour is one worth seeing. You could tell that the set list was as much fun for Guns N’ Roses as it was for the fans!

Andrew Stockdale of Wolfmother put it best when he called opening for Guns and honor and said, “we all need this, don’t we?”

Last night, Aerosmith and Hollywood Vampires guitarist Joe Perry collapsed on stage in New York.

He was performing at Coney Island with The Hollywood Vampires, and Alice Cooper mentioned that he was “sick before the show.” At one point, a visibly struggling Perry sat near the drums, and eventually went backstage where he reportedly collapsed. A fan mentioned he collapsed before this moment as well.